Future Windows 8.1 update will finally bring back the Start menu

New menu combines classic Start menu look with new Live Tiles.

Enlarge / A Modern app running in a window on the desktop (right), and the new Live Tile-packed Windows 8.1 Start menu that will be available in a future update.

Microsoft

The new Windows 8.1 update coming out next week introduces some features friendly to mouse and keyboard users, but another future update is bringing back the one thing that people have complained about most when it comes to Windows 8: it will introduce a new version of the classic Windows Start menu that combines features from the pre-Windows 8 menu with new Windows 8 concepts like Live Tiles.

We aren't sure exactly when this update will be available, but it's just the latest step back that Microsoft has taken from the original user interface it introduced in Windows 8. Each subsequent update has attempted to retain the Start screen for use on tablets while sneaking in concepts from older versions of Windows to win over an audience very important to Microsoft: businesses with desktop and laptop workstations. These customers typically want new Windows versions to change as little as possible in order to cut down on user education and testing of internal applications.

In addition to the new Start menu, Microsoft also announced that new Universal apps coded to run on phones, tablets, and desktops would be able to run in windows on the desktop, further blurring the lines between the Start screen and the desktop. We know nothing about the timing of either of these updates, but we'll continue to follow the story as it develops.

Not including a start menu in Windows 8 from the very beginning has cost Microsoft billions in lost sales. Still, better late than never. My grandpa might even think about replacing his XP box when this update ships with new PCs.

Finally! On large screens, the whole full screen apps/menu thing really was just inconvenient. Did they ever fix the issue of sharing data between desktop & non-desktop apps (at one point, you couldn't even copy/paste between them)?

I've never had a problem with the Start Menu on Windows 8 using my keyboard/mouse. I'm interesting in seeing how the people that REALLY hate the Start Menu react. Personally, a smaller set of live tiles seems like a good idea. Personally, I'd probably have gone for an over/under schema using the start menu as a "snapped" app, but this looks like it might be the start of a middle ground.

Am I the only one who never missed that thing? I assumed everyone used the Windows key and searched for whatever they wanted.

That's all I use the start menu for as well, unless it's something I've pinned to the top of the start menu/an automatically listed common program.

Most people just complained because the Metro screen takes up the whole screen, so when they press the Windows key the can't see what they were previously looking at. Like when you're opening a new program you need to see what you had up before...

It is still a somewhat valid point that it's unnecessary to have it be fullscreen as basically just a search button, but it's equally not that much of a problem because usually when you're going there it's to do something specific and quick, so it's not much of an interruption in workflow.

Is it really a back-track, or was this a planned transition? I remember when office 2007 switched to the then-reviled ribbon that MS basically said they took out the old menus to force people to adapt to the new interface, but then they kinda added the menus back in office 2k10. It seems like they've done the same thing here, forcing people on to the start screen before coming out with a compromise.

On April 8—coincidentally the same day that Microsoft cuts off Windows XP support—a free Windows 8.1 Update will bring mouse and keyboard users some much needed relief with some small but useful system tweaks.

“Our goal is to bring back the familiar,” Chaitanya Sareen, Microsoft Principal Program Manager Lead on Windows, told me as he demonstrated some of the new features last week.

As I've noted, Update 1 isn't perfect, and that step forward bit also means that it's not the full vision for the future, but is rather just partway there. But none of the problems are insurmountable, and many of the things I complain about here won't bother others.

Overall, I'm just happy to see the Windows team pick up the baton of "rapid release cycle" and really run with it. And it's very clear that by continuing to provide feedback, we can materially impact Windows and ensure that it's the product we expect. That alone signals a new era, and a new sense of hope.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is highly recommended. You should upgrade as soon as possible.

Am I the only one who never missed that thing? I assumed everyone used the Windows key and searched for whatever they wanted.

Having the windows key bring up a full screen app to do a simple search might be acceptable to some people, but lots of us have many things up on our screens at once and don't necessarily want everything to go away when a small box down in the corner can do the same job just as effectively.

The interesting thing to me about Windows 8 and the start screen/start button/tiles/desktop drama is that it has always been about execution. Execute the above well and it will be awesome. Execute it bad and you've made a confusing interface even worse.

Am I the only one who never missed that thing? I assumed everyone used the Windows key and searched for whatever they wanted.

As soon as you said "I assumed everyone..." you were wrong. There was no way you could complete that sentence and be right. There shouldn't be only one way to do things. Different ways are better for different purposes and different circumstances.

And as for your first sentence, obviously you have not read the comment threads about Windows 8 before.

I'm really hoping that classic start menu is able to be disabled, to stick with the start screen. I don't actually stick icons on my desktop, ever, and the start screen has been a best of both worlds for pinning things to the start menu and the start menu itself as my "desktop" for as far as launching goes, without having to use Win+D to switch back and forth and still getting the rapid search of Win+typing.

It is still a somewhat valid point that it's unnecessary to have it be fullscreen as basically just a search button, but it's equally not that much of a problem because usually when you're going there it's to do something specific and quick, so it's not much of an interruption in workflow.

Making it full screen completely and fundamentally breaks the multitasking "Windows" paradigm. That nobody at Microsoft saw this is still mind boggling to me.

Oh good, jump lists are back too. Those were the only things I really missed in the transition to the start screen. I held my primary machine back on Win7 to keep that feature, so once this update hits it'll be able to migrate to 8.1 with the rest of my machines.

It is still a somewhat valid point that it's unnecessary to have it be fullscreen as basically just a search button, but it's equally not that much of a problem because usually when you're going there it's to do something specific and quick, so it's not much of an interruption in workflow.

Making it full screen completely and fundamentally breaks the multitasking "Windows" paradigm. That nobody at Microsoft saw this is still mind boggling to me.

This and exactly this. The worst part was that if you were following instructions online, you had to print them or memorize them because you couldn't see them as soon as the start screen popped up.

I'm really hoping that classic start menu is able to be disabled, to stick with the start screen. I don't actually stick icons on my desktop, ever, and the start screen has been a best of both worlds for pinning things to the start menu and the start menu itself as my "desktop" for as far as launching goes, without having to use Win+D to switch back and forth and still getting the rapid search of Win+typing.

If they allow you to set the dimensions of the Live Tiles part of the Start Menu as big as you want, it's basically the same thing.

This is the first reasonable decision Microsoft has made about the start menu debacle. Live tiles on the start menu is OK and a reasonable compromise. That's just a little bit different for training but otherwise all the same as Windows 7. I can work with this, and now I'll consider Windows 8 for our corporate computers.

Where was this for 8.1? Did they finally fire the my-way-or-the-highway guy at Microsoft who insisted that everything from now on would be a tablet even if it wasn't touch?

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.